Driving a motorcycle to work is a risky proposition around here, especially since Autovantage.com has hipped us to the fact that Baltimoreans are amongst the top 15 rudest drivers in the nation. But that’s not stopping scores of new motorcycle riders from risking road rash or worse just to enjoy 50 ...read more

In late June 2006, we highlighted a peculiar situation. It was a situation where the price of gold had risen 32% to $583 per ounce in the previous twelve months, but three interesting small-cap gold stocks were selling for the same prices they were when gold was trading around $430 an ...read more

In an ideal world, stock buybacks blow dividends away -- hands down. If a company wants to return value to shareholders, the buyback is the way to go. Don't get me wrong. Dividends have their place. And some investors will always be attracted to that cash every quarter. But ideally, buybacks are extremely ...read more

It's already a major political issue entering 2007. House Democrats have made it clear that they intend to repeal a provision in the 2003 Medicare drug benefit law that prevents the government from being involved in negotiations of prescription drug prices. While opinions are split, some surveys say this legislation could find ...read more

When you lose 77% on a single stock in the opening minutes of trading, there is not much that can ease the pain. It’s alarming… It hits you in your very core. One would think such a tremendous downturn in a single day was reserved for movies like Wall Street and ...read more

Even in a strong market like we have right now, good small-cap ideas are hard to come by. And when I do find them, I have many pages to fill in both Small-Cap Strategy Report and Small-Cap Insider with my best ideas of the moment. But The Sleuth is very important, ...read more

Wireless communications networks have given birth to the cell phone industry, and Blue Tooth has severed the cords from our headsets to the phones. The only cord that's left has become a major source of irritation -- the power cord. Until someone comes up with a commercially successful method of ...read more

The brakes just might have been slammed on U.S. defense spending. Voters in the U.S. made their feelings known about the Iraq War and seemingly swept aside as much Republican influence as they could last week. Political pundits didn't see this coming. Equity analysts were shocked, too. And markets always love to react ...read more

While the initial idea of owning an original Pac-Man machine for a reasonable price was somewhat intriguing, seeing a room full of these dirty, noisy machines had a sobering effect. The room to which I'm referring was just about 15 miles north of Baltimore at the Timonium State Fairgrounds. The event ...read more

Enter what's called the sell-side firm. It's like any other brokerage firm, but it's analysts cover stocks as ideas primarily for institutions, mutual funds and hedge funds -- the buy side. The buy side guys are the managers who are pulling triggers on large share positions each and every day. Traditionally, the ...read more